"'Charming' is the better word, Miss Stone," suggested The Fox.
"Don't correct me when I'm on a vacation," exclaimed the plump girl. "I won't stand for it——"
Just then she slipped and sat down hard and they all laughed.
"Lucky you weren't on the ice. You'd gone right through that time, Jennie," declared The Fox. "Now, let's come on to the cave if we're all agreed. I guess Ruth has the right idea."
"We'll drag the sled and break a path for you girls," announced Tom. "All ready, now! Bring your snowshoes. If it stops snowing, we can get home on them to-night."
"Oh, dear, me! I hope so," cried Belle Tingley. "What will mother and father say if we're not home by dark?"
"They'll be pretty sure we wouldn't travel far in this storm. Preston and the other men will find us, anyway."
"I expect that is so," admitted Ruth, thoughtfully, "And they'll find Jerry's cave. I hope he won't be mad at me for taking you all there."
However that might be, it seemed to the girl of the Red Mill, as well as to Tom Cameron, that it was wisdom to seek the nearest shelter. The ravine was steep, but it was sheltered. There were not many big drifts until they reached that great one at the head of it, into which Ruth had fallen when she slipped over the brink of the precipice.
Nevertheless, they were half an hour beating their way up the gully and out upon that ledge which led to the mouth of Jerry's cave. The boys found the laden sled a good deal of a load and the girls had all they could do to follow in the track the sled made.